Gujarat: 50% Seats in Professional & Engineering Courses Still Vacant

Highlights:
This year, around 83% of seats are vacant in both MBA and M.Pharmacy courses. Similarly, 55% of seats are vacant in M.Tech and 44% in engineering.

Around 1.55 lakh seats in professional and engineering courses are still lying vacant in Gujarat. The higher education scenario of Gujarat is in an unknown state as 53.2 % seats are vacant. The same situation was prevalent last year where 53% of seats were left unfilled. Recently, the government has increased the fees in private colleges. Moreover, nowadays students are evaluating the facilities provided in the college and compare placement opportunities and packages before taking admission into a course or college.

Surprisingly, the Directorate of Technical Education decided to increase 10,202 seats in professional courses this year. However, the DTE did not specify any reason for the increase in seats. This year, around 83% of seats are vacant in both MBA and M.Pharmacy courses. Similarly, 55% of seats are vacant in M.Tech and 44% in engineering. The popular diploma to degree courses received a poor response from the students. Around 63% of seats are vacant in these courses.

Dharti Patel, a parent, revealed that nowadays a middle-class household is investing around Rs. 6.5 lakh to Rs. 10 lakh on school tuition and then fees for engineering and professional courses for their children. Hence, they admit their children in popular institutes or deemed universities so that they can bag better placements with higher packages. No parent would want their children to end up with a salary of Rs.8,000 to Rs.10,000 to start with.

Janak Khandwala, President, SFC Management Association explained that the number of students opting for engineering courses has seen a drop recently. The government had given permission for 12 new engineering colleges in the last two years. The major reason for the decline in admissions is bad infrastructure, poor placements and lack of the faculty.